Both children and adults will sometimes have trouble managing their anger appropriately. There are 8 hour anger management classes that are designed to give them the information and techniques that they need to be able to practice them in the real world after the class is over. The anger management classes for children are often done in a group setting so that children of the same approximate ages are all taught at the same time. This allows them to share issues with each other and allows the instructor to be specific with techniques that seem to work for children at that particular age. Some of these classes are two part classes, with the first part being only with the children and the second part including the parents in the process. Often it is a family dynamic that is feeding into the problems with anger, and the classes will help the entire family to adapt in a healthier way.
Techniques
8 hour anger management classes will usually spend the first part of the day explaining the main reasons behind anger so that people can better understand them. They will often give certain situations that are commonly found to make people angry, and start to show techniques that will work to manage the anger in a healthy way. Then, the 8 hour anger management classes will often do some work where the people in the class do some introspection, looking at the times that make them the most angry and the triggers that lie behind those situations. The leader of the class will sometimes ask students to share some of their experiences so that they can work through options to use the next time that experience comes up in real life.
The 8 hour anger management class will also teach different skills that might be lacking in those that are attending the class. They might teach how to keep an anger journal, which helps people to analyze the things that trigger them to inappropriate anger so that they can start to recognize them at the start, and then employ relaxation techniques so that they do not over react to the situation. They will also be taught how to use some relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and muscle relaxing exercises. Other strategies taught in the 8 hour anger management class might be how to ‘take five’ and remove themselves from the situation where they are triggered to anger so that they can calm down.